NPR 2008-05-07

Voters are going to the polls today for primaries in Indiana and North Carolina. For Democrats 1, the contest could be a deciding factor in the race for the party’s nomination 2. NPR’s Mara Liasson reports.

 Today’s prize is the biggest of the remaining primary contests in the Democratic nominating battle. One hundred and eighty-seven pledged delegates are at stake and the result could be decisive. If Barack Obama manages to win both contests, he could make it virtually impossible for Hillary Clinton to catch up to him in the delegate count and the pressure would increase for her to drop out. If Clinton could win both states, Obama’s lock on the nomination, which many Democrats have come to see as almost unshakeable, would be thrown into question. But in this protracted 3 race for the Democratic nomination, the likely result could very well be a lot less decisive. And if Obama and Clinton each win one state, then the race continues until the last primary on June 3rd when the super delegates will have to step in and provide one of these candidates the 2025 votes they need to win the nomination. Mara Liasson, NPR News, Washington.

 Officials in Myanmar say the death toll 5 from a powerful weekend cyclone 6 has reached at least 15,000. Many low-lying areas of the country were devastated 7. At least 30,000 people are said to be missing in Myanmar, formerly 8 known as Burma. The BBC’s Andrew Harding has more.

 Rescue workers are still struggling to reach the areas hit hardest by the cyclone in the vast floodplains of the Irrawaddy Delta 9. Andrew Kirkwood, who runs Save the Children’s operations inside Burma, described the challenges now facing the aid operation. “The logistics involved are quite mind-boggling. There’s going to be a need for a significant amount of trucks and boats, and it appears that many of the boats that we’ll need have been destroyed. But we are looking at the scale of the tsunami 10 here.” Burma’s reclusive military rulers have made a rare appeal for outside help. India and Thailand are already sending supplies. But hundreds of thousands of people are in need. The BBC’s Andrew Harding.

 Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke issued a warning last night. In a dinner speech in New York at Columbia Business School, Bernanke said that a rising tide of late mortgage payments and home foreclosures poses considerable dangers to the nation’s economy. The Fed chairman called on Congress to take more steps to address the housing crisis. He said that addressing the nation’s housing problems is in everybody’s interest. Some one and a half million US homes went into the foreclosure process last year, an increase of 53% from 2006. Bernanke said the rate of new foreclosures looks likely to be even higher this year.

 Oil prices rose in Asian trading today to near $121 a barrel. US light crude for June delivery rose to $120.93 a barrel in electronic trading. And in Tokyo, Japanese financial markets were closed today for a national holiday.

 This is NPR News.

 Ohio’s Democratic attorney general is being pressured to resign by members of his own party. Ohio Public Radio’s Jo Ingles explains.

 Ohio’s Democratic Governor Ted 4 Strickland says Attorney General Marc Dann must resign. This comes after a scathing 11 report that shows Dann’s office was mismanaged in a way that contributed to problems with sexual harassment 12, excessive drinking and a hostile work environment. Strickland says Dann must be held to the same standards as other officeholders. “Those of us who have the obligation or the privilege of holding these offices for a period of time must understand that none of us are indispensable.” If Dann doesn’t resign, Ohio’s Democratic lawmakers are promising 13 to impeach 14 him. Dann says he will not resign because he’s done nothing that would warrant that. For NPR News, I’m Jo Ingles, in Columbus, Ohio.

 The Federal Reserve is reporting that more banks are tightening 15 lending standards on home mortgages as well as on other types of consumer loans and business loans. The Fed says that the percentage of banks reporting tighter lending standards was near historic highs for nearly all loan categories. The survey was conducted in April. It found that nearly two-thirds of banks surveyed had tightened 16 lending standards on traditional home mortgages, with 15% saying those standards had been tightened considerably 17. The current crisis began last year with rising defaults in the market for sub-prime loans. These were loans extended to borrowers with weak credit histories. Many of those sub-prime loans were packaged into mortgage-backed securities and sold to investors 18 worldwide.